John Krasinski is no stranger to serialized television. Though the actor has graduated to movie-star status thanks to his Marvel Studios cameos and his experience with the Quiet Place franchise, he’ll forever be known as the sarcastically charming Jim Halpert from his 9-season run on NBC’s The Office, which you currently can binge if you have a Peacock subscription. So Krasinski understands how to return to a role with a new season and find ways to make the character interesting to the audience, and interesting for the actor to play. Which is the challenge he’s facing now that his Amazon Prime Video series Jack Ryan is returning for Season 3.
Jack Ryan’s a famous character from the Tom Clancy novels, and has been translated on screen by a handful of heavy-hitting action stars, from Harrison Ford to Ben Affleck. John Krasinski has brought the clever spy to streaming, and just dropped Season 3 of the international thriller on December 21. (Dive into it now if you have an Amazon Prime Video subscription.) So as he was preparing, physically and mentally, for another season of the storyline, we asked Krasinski how he continues to ground Ryan in a world where the stakes are increasingly high. He explained:
I think these characters, and what he needs to do to trust people and to rely on people, is what makes him a human. I think that him trusting his gut, and having someone say that it’s dangerous to trust your gut, is what makes the character interesting rather than, like other heroes who are able to go off and do whatever (they) want. There’s consequences to what Jack does.
There were several lingering questions that we needed answered once Season 2 of Jack Ryan drew to a close, with one of our own staff writers openly wondering if John Krasinski’s version of Jack Ryan is good at his job. I don’t have the answer to that. But I do know that it was Krasinski’s idea to set his agent up against the agency in Season 3, as the actor went on to tell CinemaBlend:
As far as raising the stakes, we raised the stakes in every single way we could for Season 3, We actually had the fans in mind when we came up with the idea for Season 3 because we knew once we were pushed, and clearly the pandemic was what delayed us – once we knew that there would be that much time between the two seasons, we wanted to create something that the fans, it was worth the wait for them. So, I thought having the CIA be the one that’s chasing Jack, and actually he’s being hunted down by his own agency… it’s pretty good for as far as raising the stakes goes.
Recently, the actor talked to us about what he’s going to miss the most about playing Jack Ryan. We know going in to Jack Ryan Season 3 that there will be a Season 4, and it will conclude Krasinski’s run with the character. So savor all of these new Jack Ryan episodes, now that they are available on Amazon Prime Video.
